TED NUGENT continues to make a difference in the lives of others and, in his words, connect with “people who matter.” Yesterday, a young Florida girl suffering from a life-threatening medical condition traveled with her family to Texas to spend four days with NUGENT at his SpiritWild Ranch with the help of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. As reported in the South Florida Sun Sentinel (May 5, 2009): “Brianna Curry, 6, of Jupiter, is battling a brain tumor and became a fan of Nugent by watching his reality show Spirit Of The Wild on the Outdoor Channel. Make-A-Wish Foundation officials say Brianna even enjoys the rocker's music.”

Last month, Nugent hosted a six-year-old little boy at the ranch via Make-A-Wish, and later this week he’ll be joined by twelve wounded warrior heroes of the US Military who will shoot, fish and BBQ with Ted and to hear his powerful song 'Fred Bear', which connects deeply with young and old alike. Ted comments on the emotional effect of 'Fred Bear', inspired by famed American bowhunter and lifetime Nugent friend Fred Bear: “I know what the song means. There are literally thousands and thousands of stories like these that my life has been blessed with. It is truly a spiritual phenomenon.”

Below is an excerpt from a letter Ted received about how the song was used to honor a recently departed man.

Dear Ted,

I wanted to let you know about a good friend who suddenly died of cancer last week after just being diagnosed three weeks ago. Oscar Anderson, 68 owned the Pine Palace camp in Lake County Michigan, one of those wonderful Michigan deer camps that were staked out in the 1940s. Our clan never misses the Michigan deer season and one of the highlights each year is when my brother-in-law, Charlie and I play guitars and entertain the gangs from three other camps for our steak ‘n blues night, the big blowout night of the season. 'Fred Bear' is always the last encore for us and Oscar was always proud to be the host and loved seeing everybody show up at his place. The funeral service for Oscar and his family was yesterday and the family had asked Charlie and me to play at the end of the service. We’d been working on 'Tears In Heaven' and played it for my Mom’s funeral in December. So we plugged into the church’s sound system with our electric acoustics and did a pretty solid rendition. But as we hit the last chord of “Tears in Heaven,” we slid into a solemn version of 'Fred Bear'. As soon as the crowd heard that A- minor chord progression, the tears really began to flow throughout the church. We just did the last verse and the fade out with “In the wind, he’s still alive…”. It still chokes me up to even talk about it. After the service everyone was talking about how blown away [they were] by hearing 'Fred Bear' and how fitting it was for Oscar’s last song. One of Oscar’s closest nephews said he was sitting in the pew thinking about 'Fred Bear' even before we played it and thought God was listening to him wishing to hear it”

I just wanted to let you know how far some of your music sometimes travels and say thanks for doing it for hunters.

Mike Andrews This August, viewers from around the world will have the opportunity to experience Ted Nugent’s wilderness skills on his new series Runnin’ Wild…from Ted Nugent. During this eight episode competition series on CMT, the iconic rocker, hunter and modern day Davy Crockett teaches ordinary people how to survive in the wild, and then evade the master…Nugent himself. The show will feature competitors who struggle in wilderness-based endurance challenges created by Nugent and his eighteen-year-old son Rocco, with only one competitor emerging as the winner.

For more information, visit: www.tednugent.com.